PowerSwitch

I wonder if I could tap the PowerSwitch team for some ideas?

Im starting to think about changing careers. Right now Im a contract programmer and have been for 20 years. I have no work on.

If you had a small amount of capital and breathing space what kind of retraining would you undertake? Here are some possibilities that I thought of this AM.

A Masters in renewable energy and related (similar to yours Mike) then try and get a career going however I might be too old to restart a carrer (40 something). I have a first degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Try and get a lecturing role at a local collage.

Do a mix of courses (Permaculture, Electrical Installation, Digital Plumbing) with the aim of localising and diversifying my income. My first stop every day is the garden, I have designed and built and installed our Solar power system (but its not mains connected).

Get some more yachting related qualifications so I could teach yachting in the summer (I love sailing) and do something else in the winter. - not a great plan with PO in mind but still very very tempting right now.

Others? Now Ive written it down the mixed course solution above looks quite attrractive.

I?m rather lost at the moment - my BAU brain is fighting my PO brain and as a result Im not moving forward.

TIA

Pete M

Hi Pete, that sounds like a good approach. I guess you have to imagine what the world will be like in 5 to 10 years, what you want to be doing, and how you can prepare for it. If I had the breathing space to do it, I'd follow similar lines to yours.

How about becoming the UK's first Peak Oil aware careers advisor. Seems to be a call for that

This is a very big question Pete.

1. World view - I guess you need to write down what you think the world/UK is going to be like in 5/10/15 years.
2. Work out what you would like to do and not like to do - do you like working with wood - joinary? Working with water / heating - plumbing? Do you want to advise others or be able to do physical things yourself? etc.
3. Be honest with yourself and try to work out what way your aptitudes lean. Programming - strong in the logic department, attention to detail, working at a desk/computer. May not be good at working outside 8 hours a day? etc.
4. What are your goals? Will the list of possible jobs lead you to them? Discard the ones that don't.
5. Iterate the process - get somebody to play devils advocate with you.

Hope that is of some help.

A main thing will be how well you get on with others too. Doesn't matter what you're capable of if you can't get people on board.

snow hope wrote:This is a very big question Pete.

1. World view - I guess you need to write down what you think the world/UK is going to be like in 5/10/15 years.

It's also important that we give a thought to what we will be like in 5/10/15 years too. In 15 years time today's "40 something" will become "getting on for 60", so an 8 hour shift of hard labour in the field might not be an option.

Even if it doesn't involve a career change as such, I've found it's a good idea to focus on how I might simply make myself more "useful" to others around me - you may not get paid for fixing someone's leaky roof, but you could barter the service for something else.

What I would like to see on this forum is maybe a top ten list of PO-sensible jobs and careers, and maybe a top ten of jobs NOT to be in after PO. It does depend a lot on the when (PO+5 years? PO+10 years?) and where (city, rural, northern/southern climate) factors though.

A few ideas off the top of my head:

Top 10 careers?:
- Security: policing, armed forces, security guard, bouncer, henchman, (not nice, but these people will find plenty of work)
- Anything to do with small-scale sustainable farming, forestry etc
- Education (useful stuff rather than astrophysics)
- Doctor, nurse, anything to do with medicine, healthcare etc
- Veterinary work
- Carpentry, plumbing, electrician, small-scale building trades etc
- Locksmith
- Anything to do with energy conservation or renewables
- Fishing industry (until about 2050 when the fish run out!)
- Anything related to distribution and treatment of water supplies

Worst 10 careers?:
- Taxi driver
- Night shift worker at a 24 hour petrol station
- Anything to do with Aviation
- Anything to do with Tourism
- Anything to do with Sports, Arts + Entertainment industries
- Unskilled, unstable, uninteresting "shop assistant" type slave-jobs that lead nowhere
- Marketing and sales
- Insurance, accountancy, tax, notaries etc.
- Estate agent
- Astronaut!


Which leaves in the "to be decided" category: politicians, bankers, lawyers, computer programmers, architects, miners, zookeepers, mastic asphalt spreaders...

Worst 10 careers?:

Number One has got to be "Car Salesman"

Erik wrote: - Insurance, accountancy, tax, notaries etc.

Not sure about accountancy. I agree as far as all those in high powered city firms shuffling huge amounts of money are concerned. There will be a need to do things efficiently and cost effectively, and some of us who have worked in the real world have useful skills that could be adapted to help make this happen.

I recently retrained at 49. I used several of the "rules" below to decide what to move into:

You really need a career:

- which does NOT require extensive commuting or travel by car or plane.

- which ideally is at or near your home.

- which is geographically "portable" i.e. if you move to another area you can still work. (Some jobs are tied to specific towns e.g film makers will be in Elstree or similar sites)

- where you can control your own time i.e. you have no boss controlling your day.

- which does not require more energy than a decent solar or wind system might provide

- which does not rely on exotic or difficult to replace imported goods

- which has some "barrier to entry" so that not everyone can jump into it. This means that it should require some skill, training & maybe official certificates etc.

- where the retraining costs in money and elapsed time should be within your personal budget

- where the set-up cost for the business after training should be within your budget

- where the service or product should be valuable in an energy deficient world

- where your tools etc can be carriable by car or bike. If you need to take a 2 ton hand powered press with you, then you won't be travelling too far or too often!

- where your tools, products or raw materials are not prime targets for illegal theft. This might rule out goldsmithing etc.

- where your tools, products or raw materials are not prime targets for legal "theft" by the authorities. This might rule out diesel generator sales etc.

- where your income from the new career will be more than simply subsistence level

- where the career has no embedded "ageism" ... you might need to be working until you are 70+. This might rule out various very physical roles.

Finally the job/skill should pass The Barricade Test.
"You can't enter our community unless you have useful skills. What do you do then?"
"I'm an X."
"Wow - you will be a great asset. Fred, pull back the razor wire and let this chap in. Joe, shoot anyone who tries to sneak in at the same time."

Excellent points... however I can't really think of anything that satisfies them all! Maybe electrician.

clv101 wrote:Excellent points... however I can't really think of anything that satisfies them all!

My thoughts exactly.

Did you create a shortlist Vortex?

I found having a year out to do a course was great, really helped me focus and also head off in a completely unexpected direction in the end!

If I were to go back 2 years, I might be more inclined to have done permaculture than renewable energy, but on the other hand, doing the course I did got me into the job I'm in now, which is flexible enough to allow me to get into running our own woodland (which we are in the process of buying...). I work from home (so can relocate easily), and part-time, so I have plenty of time spare for doing other things. And when I am working for my employer, it as it least a "good cause", as it's promoting renewable energy.

Overall, I'd say the ideal job should be part-time, not involve much travelling, and be in a secure sector. But most important, you have to enjoy it!

Joules wrote:

clv101 wrote:Excellent points... however I can't really think of anything that satisfies them all!

My thoughts exactly.

Did you create a shortlist Vortex?

It took me two years to find anything which matched my requirements ... and it still fails one test:

which does not rely on exotic or difficult to replace imported goods

I gave up my rather nice Senior Technologist job at a major mobile phone company to retrain and then to set up and run a small business calibrating etc medical equipment.

I wasn't made redundant - but being 49 in a company of 35 year olds seemed rather risky longer term, so a change was called for.
It also tied in with our Peak Oil style concerns.

I now travel one mile to work. I no longer need to carry my passport at all times, just in case I needed to fly abroad at a moments notice.

I do miss the money of my old job 'tho .... I used to be able to take our family of 6 abroad for weekends etc without thinking about the cost. Now I can hardly afford to send a 2nd class postcard abroad!

which is flexible enough to allow me to get into running our own woodland (which we are in the process of buying...).

Will you be building a "temporary" shelter in your woodland, Mike?

Current line of work- corporate business continuity planning. Good for likely power cuts, fuel supply shocks, not to mention bird flu awareness. But I have no friends, being the Harbinger of Doom.

Medium term career goal - redundancy from above, then becoming a p/t debt counsellor on a modest wage, something community based and worthwhile. Now building up expertise with training and experience at the CAB. Fits all the criteria Vortex mentioned.

Since starting on those two parallel paths, I became PO aware.

Retirement career goal - (well before 64): Doing the garden, digging the weeds, who could ask for more?